Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250015
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO =UI
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES FOOD EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And, contrary to popular belief, the day is not only for children. The Southeast United Dairy Industry Association Inc. reports that Halloween - second only to Christmas for holiday decorating - is surpassed only by Christmas and New Year's Eve as the most popular party occasion for adults, especially those in their 20s and 30s. That might explain the day's ranking among the top five sales days for beer.
Whatever your age, Halloween is a wonderful time for food and fun treats.
Now, if those treats - particularly the sweet edible ones - threaten to overwhelm you, take a hint from the makers of Crisco all-vegetable shortening and stretch your Halloween booty over several days or even weeks by saving some of that candy for use in baking.
The Crisco makers caution that candies react differently when cooked. For example, miniature caramel nut bars, chocolate-covered peanut butter cups or chocolate-covered coconut bars hold up well in baking when broken into pieces and added like chocolate chips. Crushed chocolate-covered crunch bars or chocolate bars with toffee bits can also substitute for chocolate chips. However, pure sugar candies, such as candy corn, or gel candies, such as Gummi Bears or candy whips, will simply melt if baked but can be pressed into hot freshly baked cookies to form decorative patterns.
Colored candy-coated chocolates can be baked but will crack and not look particularly attractive. For aesthetics, reserve a few pieces to place on top of cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.
Halloween food is fun. It's perfectly OK to play with it. Use cookie cutters to shape white bread ghosts, or melt strings of grated white cheese over hot dogs to create spider web weinies.
Give your condiments creepy names, such as vampire blood (ketchup); bat brains (diced tomatoes) or graveyard grass (sauerkraut).
Over 500 kids nationwide recently came up with ghoulish concoctions, such as Ocean of Monster Eggs, Bat Guts, Gooberjuice, Bloody Monster Barf, Crushed Beetle Brew and Creatures in the Sea, for Tyco Toys' Dr. Dreadful Food and Drink labs. Don't tell anyone, but the accompanying "barf" recipe, filled with chunks of fresh fruit, might actually be good for you. For a free recipe guide containing 15 of the entries, call (800) FOR-TYCO.
Pumpkins this year are perhaps not as prevalent as in some years past, but they're still plentiful. The "Pumpkin Lovers Cook Book" ($6.95, Golden West Publishers) contains more than 175 recipes using fresh or canned pumpkin, plus generous sprinklings of pumpkin trivia, history and hints. The book is available at retail outlets or may be ordered by calling (800) 658-5830.
In "Holiday Fun Year-Round," television personality and author of six previous books Dian Thomas puts pumpkins to full use - from a delicious entree that can be baked right in the squash to an excitingly eerie jack-o-lantern village. The book's 192 color pages are packed with unusual, innovative and inexpensive recipes and crafts for virtually every holiday, plus snippets of the celebrations' histories. The section on Halloween includes costumes, games, decorations and even special effects, such as floating hands: Wash the inside of a surgical glove and fill it with water. Tie a knot or rubber band at the top and freeze until solid. Carefully cut slits down the fingers and hand with a razor blade. Peel away the glove, being careful not to break off the fingers. Float the hand in very cold punch.
Holiday Fun Year-Round is available for $22.99, including shipping and handling, from the Dian Thomas Company, P.O. Box 171107, Holladay, Utah 84117; (800) 846-6355.
Recipes for:
DINNER IN A PUMPKIN
APPLE PUMPKIN DESSERT
WITCH'S HANDS
BLOODY MONSTER BARF
BLACK BOTTOM PUMPKIN CREAM PIE
SNAPPY CHEESE DUNK
PEANUT BUTTER BLASTS COOKIES:
by CNB